Broome Diocese has made a written submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission focusing on the long-term abuse of Aboriginal people.

The Diocesan Office of Justice, Ecology & Peace has made to the Commission's community consultation group, which is visiting Broome today.

Office Coordinator Br Shane Wood, said: "We believe that the differential impact that the policy of mandatory sentencing, the move towards private prisons and the jailing of fine defaulters have on Indigenous people amounts to racial discrimination."

"Many of the social problems being demonstrated around the Kimberley are the symptoms of the long-term abuse of Aboriginal people and the subsequent internalising of the values of the oppression that they have suffered," Br Wood commented. "We need to ensure that the current and next generations of Aboriginal people do not suffer in the same way."

"This Office has repeatedly called for another way of dealing with Refugees and Asylum Seekers. Turning Detention Centres into high security prisons is not the answer. We believe that our current treatment of these people is inconsistent with our International Human Rights obligations, and we are calling on the Human Rights community here and internationally to bring pressure to bear on the Federal Government for change," Br Wood concluded.